Current and Past Interns & Long-term Volunteers

Current Interns and Long-Term Volunteers

Anna Garcia is a senior at Skyline High School. She is passionate about a wide range of social issues, and loves to share her voice in any way she can to help make the world a better place. She is co-president of her schools feminism club, social justice club, and mountain bike club. For the last 2 years she has volunteered for an after school peer mentoring program for refugees in the Salt Lake valley, and this past summer she was a participant with the service group Amigos de las Américas with whom she went and lived in Ecuador for 6 weeks. She believes that racism in our communities needs to be confronted in order for anything to change, and recognizes that all of us have work to do to make sure we are the best people we can be, by treating others the way every human deserves to be treated - with love, respect, dignity, and kindness. Long-term volunteer and Student Activist

Natasha Wong is a senior in the International Baccalaureate program at Skyline high school. She has a passion for social justice and activism, and seeks to apply an intersectional approach to her understanding of social justice. She is also involved in volunteering with Planned Parenthood and Sandy Youth Court, and is a co-president for both Skyline’s Feminist Club and Skyline’s Social Justice Club. She believes that combatting racism and the systems which uphold it is essential to bettering our community, and is excited to work with Racially Just Utah in order to create a more just and equal society. ​Long-term volunteer and Student Activist

Maria AshkinMaria Ashkin is 25 years old and from Santa Fe, New Mexico. She recently joined the Education, Culture, and Society master’s program at the University of Utah. Systemic educational injustices that she observed as a teacher ignited her dedication to racial justice in schools and society. Her goals at Racially Just Utah are to cultivate white allyship, and to combat structural racism to further social healing and liberation. Spring 2018 Graduate Intern

Madeleine Ballard ​Long-term Volunteer

Tiana Chaparro is 25 years old and moved to Salt Lake City from Texas about 5 years ago. She currently studies Anthropology and Gender Studies at the University of Utah and has developed a deep connection to social issues. Areas of interest in terms of racial justice issues pertain to the systemic oppression that are still present in modern societies social stratification system. Her goals while working with Racially Just Utah include being civically engaged in the surrounding community while having a positive impact on its members. ​​2017-2018 Undergraduate Intern

Past Interns

Angela Lam is an upcoming senior at Westminster College who is working towards a Public Health major and a Spanish minor. She is interested in rectifying racial disparities among marginalized populations. Angela has interned with the Utah Coalition Against Sexual Assault and the Asian Association, and has experience volunteering with the Crossroads Urban Center. She hopes to someday get an MPH degree that specializes in Policy and Prevention in order to enact changes on a broader scale. ​Fall 2017 Undergraduate Intern

Nicole McKenna is an incoming senior at Westminster College majoring in Justice Studies with a minor in Psychology. She has a passion for social justice and rights of marginalized individuals. Her work focuses on intersections of race, class, and gender, with an emphasis on critical analysis of the rhetoric around these issues. Nicole has volunteered with Salt Lake Peer Court and the Utah RISE Drug and Mental Health Courts. She has previously worked as a case manager at a residential treatment center for women who have been incarcerated and experience co-occurring mental illness and substance abuse disorders. She currently works as the Mentoring Fellow in the Westminster Coaching and Mentoring Center and as a Program Manager for Promise South Salt Lake. Nicole is excited to join the Racially Just Utah team to support efforts that bring a voice to marginalized individuals. She believes in the value of community conversations around topics of privilege and looks forward to joining and improving these initiatives.Summer 2017 Intern​If you are interested in interning with Racially Just Utah follow this link.